As part of a $26.8 million package to improve schools statewide, Molokai High School will receive $171,207.

Gov. Neil Abercombie announced the release of the Capital Improvement Projects funds last Thursday.
“By prioritizing these school projects, we are making an investment in the education of our keiki while creating local jobs,” said Gov. Abercrombie. “The Project Labor Agreement plan announced earlier this week provides a model for collaboration with labor unions on some of these projects to prevent potential conflicts that might otherwise cause unnecessary delay.”

At Molokai High School, these funds will help with the additional construction for accessible route, bleachers, scoreboard, restrooms and accessibility improvements for the girls’ softball field. These improvements were considered necessary to meet federal gender equity requirements.

The two projects receiving the largest portion of these funds are Hilo High School, which will get $3 million for additional construction for new gymnasium, which will also serve as an emergency shelter for the community.

East Kapolei Middle School on O’ahu will receive $2.5 million for design of a new East Kapolei Middle School, needed to accommodate projected demand in the Kapolei area.

Including these projects, a total of 42 different school facility improvement projects will receive funds from this CIP money.

Boat rescue off La’au Point

Maui County firefighters aided a boat in trouble about a mile off La’au Point on the southwest tip of Molokai Saturday.

A crewman aboard the 23-foot Nicole W, out of Oahu, used a cell phone to call the fire department for help. Four men in their 20s and 30s on board the boat said they were adrift in six- to 10-foot seas with winds blowing about 29 to 35 mph at about 2:23 p.m., a Maui Fire Department spokesman said.

A rescue boat and personal watercraft reached the vessel at about 3:45 p.m. and towed it to Hale O Lono Harbor by 5:05 p.m.

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Comments (3)

Not sure how our generation ever made it to majority without state supported softball for either gender…guess that’s why we are so psycho-socially tweaked. Better tweaked than “zucked”. Considering what a black hole for funding the schools are, the priorities seem to be pretty zucked up these days. How about books and some of the supplies teachers have to go “out-of-pocket” for?

No argument. For too long, parents have been giving up their role in educating and motivating our children, leaving it to overworked hired hands or worse, to small, rectangular screens. Many of my generation survived to go on to higher education, degrees and successful careers, even in the face of classes with 60+ children and few, if any fancy aids or computers. Our parents cared enough and made our getting an education a personal priority. My family taught and motivated me to read before first grade. I was very lucky.

Unfortunately, a generation or two of parents and teachers came up during a period when the basics of reading, composition, and grammer were deprecated even in higher education. As a result, functionally illiterate children are unable to develop other critical skills because they can’t read or understand what has been written. If one can read well, they can learn to do practically anything else. Reading is truly the key to the universe. Motivation is the engine that gets you there.